Conversion of the Modified Kovács Model Parameters to the Brooks and Corey and van Genuchten Model Parameters for the Water Retention Curve of Sandy and Silty Soils
Publication: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 139, Issue 5
Abstract
The modified Kovács (MK) model is a versatile and practical tool to estimate the water retention curve (WRC) of soils from their basic properties. However, the MK model has not yet been introduced in many codes or analytical solutions; most applications rather use the Brooks and Corey (BC) and/or van Genuchten (vG) formulations to express the WRC. The authors propose in this paper a direct conversion of the MK model parameters to the BC and vG equations parameters for sandy and silty materials. The proposed equations were developed using data from 15 types of sandy soils and 14 low-plasticity silts and validated using 16 other soils. The results presented in this paper indicate how the BC and vG equations parameters can be successfully predicted from the MK model parameters. The conversion procedure provides a practical means to estimate the WRC from the basic geotechnical properties of soils and to express this curve using three different mathematical formulations: MK, vG, and BC. These expressions allow obtaining a rapid estimation of the BC and vG model parameters that are frequently used in analytical solutions and commercial numerical codes to simulate unsaturated soil water flow.
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Acknowledgments
Funding for this work was provided by the Industrial NSERC Polytechnique-UQAT Chair on Environment and Mine Wastes Management (http://www.enviro-geremi.polymtl.ca).
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Published In
Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 139 • Issue 5 • May 2013
Pages: 388 - 398
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Mar 9, 2012
Accepted: Nov 16, 2012
Published online: Nov 20, 2012
Published in print: May 1, 2013
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